Nation must re-embrace founding principles

Published: Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 08:00 AM.

Don’t we have modern Americans in all of those occupations? See, we have way more in common with our Founding Fathers than we have differences. So shouldn’t our principles always remain the same as what they believed? Outdated principles? I think not! Let’s re-embrace these principles and encourage our leaders at all levels and from all parties to do the same.

Americans back then embraced a view of the world in which a person’s position was determined not by birth, rank or title, but by talent, ability and enterprise. It was a widely held view, circulated in newspapers, pamphlets, sermons, and schoolbooks. I believe that many Americans still feel this way, and we should still share our views using all of those same formats. However, we have an additional media outlet now that they didn’t — the Internet and social media.

These resources are here to stay, so let’s use them to help encourage and arm ourselves, families, friends and leaders to re-embrace the principles of our Founding Fathers. They are as relevant today as they have ever been. Every time you vote in an election, vote for principles, not politics. Let the challenge begin!

Forward, Like, and Share this message with everyone you know and/or send out your own message. Either way, let’s just get the message out there sooner than later. Do it for all the veterans. Do it for you, your family and your friends. Do it for the United States of America.

As Veterans Day comes to a close, I want to thank everyone who thanked me for my military service. I write this not through political or religious eyes, but rather through the eyes of a patriot.

In the military one is trained to always have situational awareness by listening, observing and paying attention to detail. After spending quite some time gaining situational awareness, I feel it is my duty to offer you a challenge. If you truly appreciate the sacrifices of all veterans past, present and future, then please take me up on this challenge! Then highly encourage our leadership at all levels of government, no matter their political affiliation (or yours) to do the same.

When I took the oath of office, I promised to defend the Constitution from all enemies, both foreign and domestic. My challenge to you is to join me in defending our Constitution. To properly do this, you need to arm yourself with the knowledge and passion that only comes from learning and embracing the principles upon which our great nation was founded. These principles are our cornerstone, our values and our moral compass.

To really be able to embrace them you need not only to know them, but also understand them. Read and study not only the Constitution, but also the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and the bios of our Founding Fathers. Only then will you be able to recognize when we as a country are straying from these principles. If we do that, then we are no longer a great nation.

Why? There are many reasons. Here is one quick example: Government expands beyond what it was ever supposed to be by taking on roles that should be left to the states and private sector companies. Then taxes get raised to pay for the oversized government. These taxes come from the people — you, me, families, businesses that employ people. All of this contracts freedom and hurts the family budget. That reduces our quality of life.

Some say we are too far down the big-government path to even bother trying to get back to our founding principles. Others feel we are right where we need to be. Some say that our Founding Fathers were just a bunch of old guys who were only thinking about the country back then, not now, and that those principles don’t matter anymore; we are not the same country we were back then.

However, the Founding Fathers ranged from ages 26 to 81. Thomas Jefferson was 33 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. That’s funny, because that is my age now. I guess I am an old man according to some folks out there. These guys came from all occupations — doctors, lawyers, farmers and business owners, to name a few.

Don’t we have modern Americans in all of those occupations? See, we have way more in common with our Founding Fathers than we have differences. So shouldn’t our principles always remain the same as what they believed? Outdated principles? I think not! Let’s re-embrace these principles and encourage our leaders at all levels and from all parties to do the same.

Americans back then embraced a view of the world in which a person’s position was determined not by birth, rank or title, but by talent, ability and enterprise. It was a widely held view, circulated in newspapers, pamphlets, sermons, and schoolbooks. I believe that many Americans still feel this way, and we should still share our views using all of those same formats. However, we have an additional media outlet now that they didn’t — the Internet and social media.

These resources are here to stay, so let’s use them to help encourage and arm ourselves, families, friends and leaders to re-embrace the principles of our Founding Fathers. They are as relevant today as they have ever been. Every time you vote in an election, vote for principles, not politics. Let the challenge begin!

Forward, Like, and Share this message with everyone you know and/or send out your own message. Either way, let’s just get the message out there sooner than later. Do it for all the veterans. Do it for you, your family and your friends. Do it for the United States of America.